Poul Anderson frequently describes humanoid aliens. He tries to make them as different as possible but the basic model remains. A New Lemurian typical of his region has:
long legs;
stocky torso;
nonhuman proportions;
six fingers on each hand;
a blocky head;
large, green eyes with no whites;
a flat nose;
pointed, movable ears;
a blue crest;
bright yellow skin;
catlike whiskers, dyed red;
a scaly leather bolero jacket;
green trousers;
floppy boots;
a scarlet sash;
a pouch;
a sheathed knife;
a sheathed curved sword.
Quite colorful when set out like that. Despite all the alienness, we recognize a human form:
head;
torso;
two eyes;
two ears;
nose;
legs;
hands with fingers;
hair;
recognizable garments.
I cannot keep a picture of an alien as described by the author in mind while reading. Listing the various oddities has helped me to remember them a bit whereas they had already gone after a first reading.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Hmmm, you are one of those persons who have difficulty forming an image from a description? I think I can somewhat vaguely form a picture of a New Lemurian from the given description. Altho a bright yellow skin does seem odd!
And the map with those fictional continents of Atlantis and Lemuria makes me want to look up the latter name.
Sean
FWIW the term 'Lemuria' started as referring to a hypothetical land mass connecting Madagascar & India (& maybe a few other land areas) to explain the similarity of lifeforms in those regions many millions of years ago. The name comes from 'lemur' the primates native to Madagascar. It got dropped as a serious scientific hypothesis when Plate Tectonics became established & explained the biological similarities by continents moving horizontally rather than vertically.
The name got picked up by believers in various sorts of 'woo' who moved the sinking of Lemuria to almost historical time, & the map indicates at least some of them moved the sunken continent into another ocean. IIRC 'Mu' was made up by the same sort of woo pedlers who misplaced Lemuria in time and space.
Kaor, Jim!
IIRC L. Sprague De Camp wrote a book discussing legends and stories about lost lands and continents. And I think Avram Davidson did as well.
Happy New Year! Sean
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